When you come across an Assamese glam/heavy metal band, you make the
erroneous assumption that one of their best known songs, ‘USA’, is about
foreign dreams. A quick read through the lyrics will explain the real
meaning, as does guitarist Anurag Saikia of Filharmonix, who are based
in Jorhat and Guwahati. Saikia explains, ‘“USA’ stands for Under Skirt
Adventure. We came to know that the States has the biggest porn
industry. We write most of the songs about the inner fantasies of people
which aren’t expressed openly here.”

After all, that’s the core essence of any glam metal band – to be brash,
crass and on the lookout for anything that rhymes with it. Think bands
like Whitesnake, Dokken and Motley Crue. But some might argue this kind
of music – thumping drums, wild solos and pervy lyrics – belonged to the
‘80s. “Our basic genre is heavy metal with some touch of glam, which
got established as heavy metal’s biggest success among sub-genres,” says
Saikia, who adds: “As far as people’s talks go, we’d say it doesn’t
matters what genre one goes with. What matters is how focused and
dedicatedly you go on with your genre. We’d say we stand apart from what
is going on in the metal scene in India right now.”

Formed in 2009, Filharmonix has members based in Jorhat, which Saikia
calls the cultural capital of Assam, as well as Guwahati. They’ve had a
few line-up changes straight from the get-go. “We had a nameless band
and we were jamming for a contest called Phobiax (held in Guwahati). The
vocalist of our band got so irritated by our jam and fun we used to
have, he left the band just one week before the show,” says Saikia.
Their current vocalist, Kandarpa Kalita, stepped in at that point of
time. “We tried our best to act decent on the first jam day, but then we
realised he was just a little more manic than us. So he just perfectly
fit into the band,” jokes Saikia.

And to keep up with the game, Saikia, with bandmates Purab A. Baruah
(vocals), Bedanga Sarma (bass), Kandarpa Kalita (guitars) and Sami
(drums), made a strong impression in the scene with their debut album, Hot N High,
in July 2011. With eight tracks of heavy metal (scorching guitar solos
included), the album was a dream to release, according to the band. The
release itself was a milestone, the band says. “Now we’re putting out
singles since we invested all our money for that dream (of the album) to
come true,” says Saikia. On the way forward, the band is now focusing
on gigs, “to collect some money for the next album” considering sponsors
are rare in India for a rock/metal album.

Filharmonix has behind the strong backing of a great, catchy, romp of an album that is Hot N High.
“Our first thousand copies were sold out so we decided to put out the
songs on the internet so that we can reach audience outside Assam,” says
Saikia, adding that they are now working on their next single, ‘Devil’s
Girl’ which will be out later this month. As for the already successful
album and their mischievous current favourite ‘USA’, the songs can be
downloaded freely from www.reverbnation.com/filharmonix.